Can you do OS and work full time too?

attentionseeker1

My husband and I work about 50hrs a week each but we have reached a compromise on how OS we can manage to be

- Meal plan and buy food for about 2-3 weeks at a time. Plan is stuck on fridge and meat frozen etc as necessary, taken out to defrost while doing breakfast
- If we stop in at supermkt as out of milk or similar, have a look at the Reduced shelf and cook/eat/freeze as appropriate
- Trying to cut down on takeaways- have a frozen pizza or sth on standby though for when really really tired!
- Whenever I am cooking something that needs a nice slow cook in the kitchen, on a Sunday say, I will cook a couple more dishes for the week and freeze
- Do a quick 15 min dash before bed making sure all clutter away, dishwasher has been done, stuff ready for work in the morning
- Ironing in front of the TV
-Try to do half hour-hour mad dashes where you do loads of things- put washing out, put another load in, tidy, dishwasher, change sheets etc...and then when you do sit down, you don't have things niggling you, you can actually just relax!

Confession: we do have a cleaner who comes once a week so a lot of that burden is taken away although the house needs to be tidy before she comes for her to do a good job and she uses all shop-bought products

Mind you, we are considering starting a family so I have a feeling life is about to get a lot more difficult....

HariboJunkie

My hours have just increased from 30 to 45 (until Christmas) and combined with a couple of voluntary roles and keeping on top of OH's accounts I must say that I'm struggling to stay OS but am determined not to waste my extra wages on ready meals and takeaways. I'm pretty organised but am sooooo exhausted. OH and the children are getting much better at helping and understand now that if they want good food, clean knickers and a presentable house,they need to help out a bit. OH has been d.i.y.ing alot recently which has set me back a bit too so once that's over (and I can find things again) I hope to feel like it's less of a struggle.
Overall my advice is lists, lists, more lists and delegation.

suzybloo

I work full time, help run my husbands business by doing all the accounts and also look after my grandson 3 nights a week, I find they key to coping (well as best as possible!) is making list after list and I have a diary where I note everything - whats to be done at home and whats to be done at work. I batch cook as much as possible, finish off the washing in the drier for 5 mins and fold immediately (I justify that by thinking the electric used in 5 minutes for the drier would be less than the half hour ironing!:-)) Multi tasking becomes second nature - tonight I was standing stirring the home made custard with one hand while taking out stuff from the cupboard for the lunch boxes with the other! I also change as soon as I get in at night into casual clothes that dont need much ironing, and these do a few nights, especially if I put an apron on, so that cuts down on washing, ironing etc. It takes time but you do get into a routine - just take it a day at a time and if you do have two mins think what you could do that would help in days to come when you dont have two mins!!
I no longer go to Tesco every week but do one big order online at the start of the month, so this definately helps the finances as well as free-ing up about two hours every week - which over a month is just about the equivalent of your working day.

rb80

Hi

Firstly let me say how much I love this board and thank you for all the useful information in here!! I have been lurking for about 6 weeks now and I’m loving all the posts and how happy and nice everyone is!!

I’m trying to be more OS and save money but I am finding it really hard. I currently work over 40 hours a week and my partner who I live with is a newly qualified teacher and we worked out he is working over 65 hours a week! As a result of this we have let things slip – for example takeaways have become a staple meal both for lunch and tea. I do a meal plan each week but by Wednesday this slips as we find we are too exhausted to cook! I love cooking and baking but it’s the last thing I want to do when I get home on a dark evening and have other jobs to do. I have tried to be good and make packed lunches etc but its difficult to find the time and energy sometimes. At the moment our schedule is:

7:30am – OH goes to work
8am – I go to work
12:30am – Half an hour lunch break
6:15pm – I get home
6:20pm – start preparing food
6:45pm OH home – eat tea
7:30pm – washing/drying up
8pm – do jobs (washing, ironing, or clean, feed/clean pets etc) At this point OH is doing lesson marking etc.
9pm – try and find energy to make lunch for the next day.
9:20pm – and relax!
10:00pm Bed time!

I would be really grateful if you could give me tips and ideas as to how to organise my time more effectively to be more OS and money saving. I do the food shopping on Saturday usually so can freeze stuff for the week but don’t really want to spend all my weekend cooking. Any ideas for quick, cheap lunches? We don’t have a microwave at work so it cant be anything hot.

How do other people manage? I cant imagine having kids to look after as well!! I would be really grateful of any tips or advice you could give to save money and time. Thank you

MrsE_2

rb80 wrote: »

How do other people manage? I cant imagine having kids to look after as well!! I would be really grateful of any tips or advice you could give to save money and time. Thank you

We are like you both out all day. DH gets up around 4am or shortly after & is gone by 5am. I get up at 5.30.

I'm not back till 5.30pm, often later. DH varies, rarely earlier than me.

I mealplan & try & fix simpler things for Mon-Fri.

I've cooked a chicken tonight which will go in the fridge for chicken salad & wedges tomorrow night.
We do spag bol, chillies, that sort of thing most nights.
With stew (I don't like slow cookers), I cook it one evening - slowly while in all evening & reheat the next night.

I think its a good idea to have one cooking & cleaning day at the weekend & try not to do much more than cook a nice meal & clear up as you go midweek.

ETA after shopping at the weekends, I portion & freeze the meat. Then I take what I need out in the morning before I go to work, ready to cook when I get home.
I would hate having to shop midweek, it would take me out of my way & add £ to my petrol AND it bleeds your evening time.

rosieben

I can't offer any advice but you might find something useful here on this thread about working full time and being OS

larmy16

Hi

You could invest in two food flasks. Even if you are exhausted and don't get round to cooking, you could still take some tinned soup and some bread. This would save you money on getting lunch out.

When you do get time to cook, you could make homemade soups, chilli or stews and take it in your flasks.

I know what you mean about it all falling apart by Wednesdays. When I have a day off, I can be so old style it is untrue.

It is also harder these cold dark nights I find when you just want to curl up. I am ready for bed by 7pm!

Don't be too hard on yourself and just do one little thing at a time.

smeeinnit

Hiya

I have been just as guilty to succumbing to takeaways when tired because of long working hours, so I know where you are coming from! Some advice that I can give and works for me, if you dont have one, invest in a slow cooker. Easy preparation, it can look after itself all day and you have lovely hot food ready and waiting for when you come home. I bought my second one recently for a tenner from Argos. 3.5 litre one is plenty for two and can stretch to another meal for 2 for the freezer. Another thing I do often on a Sunday when cooking a roast is cook a bolognese sauce, as I am in the kitchen anyway so it doesn't seem like more work. Divide up into portions, freeze some and keep a portion in the fridge to eat within a couple of days. Only need to reheat and cook up a bit of pasta. It does take a little organisation but really helps when you have your own ready meal ready, and you have saved the takeaway costs too. I am sure there will be loads more advice along shortly

McKneff

Could you afford some help for say 2 hours on a Monday and 2 hours on a Friday to do some jobs in your house.

Cleaning, bit of cooking to put in the fridge for supper.

If you are both earning, it should not be too bad.

When I worked full time i paid someone for 2 hours the amount that i got paid, made all the difference to my sanity
the way i looked at it it was a choice between 2 hours doing accounts for nothing but my cleaning was being done.

CFC

The only way I can cope with my long working hours is by being a meal ahead of myself and not trying to cook every night. (I do not have a big enough freezer to do batch cooking.) You are possibly trying to be too sophisticated if you are letting everything slip by Wednesday?

Example

Sunday - roast chicken, do twice as much spuds as required, eat half, with veg
Monday - cold chicken, reheated roast spuds, frozen veg and gravy
Tuesday - 5 minute dinner : chilled Lidl ravioli with a jar of tomato sauce.
Tuesday night - Cook Wednesday dinner, 4 chicken portions cooked with veg (chopped cauliflower on this occasion but sometimes it is frozen veg) and curry paste plus tomato puree. Bung ingredients into a pan and let it simmer while vegging out in front of telly.
Wednesday - reheat chicken curry and eat with rice
Thursday - as above, but add a portion of coconut cream for a different flavour (or yogurt, or cream)
Friday - this week we are having a chilled pizza, last week on the Thursday I made a bolognese sauce for pasta while eating dinner and we had that on the Friday.
Saturday - treat : take away/mock take away

Other 'little effort' suggestions - bake spuds for reheating the next day (not as nice, but fast), frozen chips, eggs and beans, soups etc. These are all cheaper and healthier than a take away but do not involve you slaving over a hot stove feeling pressured and neither do they generate a lot of washing up that you don't want to do at night.

My top tips - you do not want to be preparing a load of veg, so have frozen veg on hand, focus on casseroles and curries etc that will cook themselves and also not generate much washing up, and don't do anything on a week night that involves peeling spuds either. Pasta or rice is the way to go. To keep rice cooking time down and avoid scrubbing burnt pans, measure out your rice, bung it in a saucepan with the same amount of water again (trial and error for the brand of rice you use is necessary), let it come to the boil, then switch it off and leave it. Come back in 20 mins and it should be ready for consumption.

Be disciplined about making the lunches after dinner while other half washes the plates. Make sure you have bought enough sandwich fillings for the week so you only have to pick up bread at the half way mark. Keep it simple, sandwiches and fruit, plus choc or crisps if wanted. Yes it's a pain, but keep it to a 5 minutes pain!